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Wednesday, November 4, 2015

A Flashback to the Future

Elizabeth Both

Arts & Entertainment Editor

The year is 1985, no one has ever heard of a cell phone, no selfies are being taken, and computers have not taken over the world yet. One thing is for sure though-Back to the Future was made into a cultural beloved phenomenon. In the second installment of the trilogy, Marty Mcfly and Doc Brown flew high into 2015 to save Marty’s son from being put into jail (like his Uncle Joey), but as the movie goes on, it seems as that’s not the only problem to be solved. They go from 1985 to Oct. 21, 2015, in a flash, entering a world of flying cars, hoverboards, and Pepsi Now.

As this date recently passed, the nation devoured as much as they could to reminence on the compelling franchise. USA Today printed copies of the iconic newspaper shown in the film (selling over one million copies, making fans buy paper instead of reading news off of their cell phones, so big win for USA Today). Over one thousand theaters screened the trilogy, or at least the second installment in honor of the day, and it seems as if it worked well for them as the screening brought in almost another two million. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd made an appearance in their characters on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to poke fun at how 2015 sadly does not have flying cars, but told the two what a selfie was. One thing Nike did achieve though is that in the spring of 2016, self-tying sneakers will be auctioned/ sold off for the Michael J.Fox Foundation.

As a nation we have been waiting 30 years for this day (technically 26 since Back to the Future II came out in 1989-not 1985), to connect two different dimensions of real life to a popular movie. In these past years, the U.S has learned a lot of devastating things, yet as a country we can still connect for one day over a film.

Growing up I have at least watched Back to the Future II each year, a hundred times. For instance, I just saw the film last weekend as this is being printed, and I can quote pretty much every single line. I know the movie so well and have seen it so many times that I still get annoyed when Marty buys that stupid almanac. I think one of the main reasons it resonates with most people is that it can be watched during any time of the year. The predictions in the film were pretty close, but they missed one tiny little thing: the internet. A type of “Google Glass” was shown in the movie, and a type of virtual reality is revealed as well, but they missed the whole “technology will take over as-we-know-it” type of thing.

This prominent date has officially passed and of course it’s fantastic that so many people can celebrate a good movie, but I mentioned to my family this past week how it’s sad how Oct. 21 has actually...left us. Instead of comparing what we can accomplish in the future from that film, we now live in the future. No more predictions to set, it’s as if the 21st century has officially started and it’s left for us to unfold. And that’s the biggest mystery of all.